10 years of Flick Filosopher: the atheist critic strikes again

Faux spiritual studio movies make it so easy to believe that Hollywood really is full of godless heathens. From my review of Bless the Child:

The problem with the God that everyone talks about is that he makes for a lousy dramatic character. The Old Testament God, with his jealous anger and propensity for smiting people he didn't like... now, there was a character. But the nice, New-Agey deity that shows his face -- or doesn't show his face, as it turns out -- here is nothing but a cheap out in a poorly constructed story. Good guys in a fix? Send an angel to help them out. Top-billed actor shot in the chest multiple times? Miraculous resurrection. Talk about a deus ex machina. And he's so damn inconsistent: God can save beautiful Mrs. Baldwin, who doesn't even believe in him, but he's got no problem letting a smelly old bum die horribly. He uses a freckly little girl to perform random acts of kindness instead of, oh, curing world hunger in one fell swoop with that all-powerful hand of God thingy, or even just thwarting Stark/Satan during one of those innumerable car chases. I mean, would a flat tire be too much to manage?

• review of Bless the Child, posted 08.11.00

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